Tropic of Chaos: An Evening with Christian Parenti

Christian Parenti talks about his latest book, 'Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence', a "brilliant weather report from the near future of world politics" (Mike Davis). The era of climate war is upon us. Extreme weather brought on by global warming is unleashing cascades of unrest and violence across the globe, from Africa to Asia to the Americas. In Tropic of Chaos, award-winning journalist and sociologists Christian Parenti reports from the front lines of this gathering social and environmental catastrophe. Combining historical research and academically informed theory with on-the-ground reporting, Parenti shows how environmental crisis is already colliding with the twin legacies of cold war militarism and unbridled free market economics to cause fragile nations to disintegrate into failed states. He critiques the way the countries of the Global North have responded to this dangerous new world: rather than adapt by defusing tensions and embracing cleaner forms of energy, these governments are responding with greater repression, surveillance, and a program of border militarization and permanent counterinsurgency. Christian Parenti is a contributing editor at The Nation, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, and a visiting scholar at the City University of New York. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from the London School of Economics. The author of Lockdown America, The Soft Cage, and The Freedom. Parenti has written for Fortune, The New York Times, Los AngelesTimes, Washington Post, Playboy, Mother Jones, and The London Review of Books. He has held fellowships from the Open Society Institute, Rockefeller Brother Fund and the Ford Foundation; and has won numerous awards, including the 2009 Lange-Tailor Prize and “Best Magazine Writing 2008” from the Society for Professional Journalists. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.